British Used Natural Disasters to Mould Imperial Narratives

hyderabad: Famines, earthquakes and cyclones in British India were used not only to document suffering but also to shape colonial power, knowledge systems and identities, according to a new book by University of Hyderabad (UoH) professor Pramod K. Nayar.

The book, ‘India and Imperial Vulnerability: Knowledge, Aesthetics and Subjects in British Disaster Discourses, 1763-1939’, published by Manchester University Press as part of the Imperialism Studies series, examines how the British represented disasters in India between 1770 and 1934.

The work goes beyond historical narratives and examines the “aesthetics of representation” and “knowledge cultures” built around disasters, through which the colonial state sought to “categorize and manage the fury of nature.”

In a statement, UoH said the book’s main focus was on how colonial narratives created the image of the “helpless native” and “working Englishman”, which, according to the research, helped legitimize imperial rule and intervention.

The book states that the work shows how disasters shaped and were shaped by imperial discourses of knowledge and learning, aesthetics of fear and horror, and labor English.

Drawing on British Government Famine Commission reports, eyewitness accounts, bureaucratic records and technical manuals, the study explores how the colonial administration developed climatological risk assessment, disaster documentation and education systems.

The book is divided into sections on disaster knowledge cultures, disaster aesthetics and disaster issues, with sections such as “The Formation of Climatological Risk”, “Destroyed Matter” and “Palliative Imperial Labour”.

Prof Nayar is senior professor in the Department of English at UoH and holds the Unesco Chair in Vulnerability Studies. He is also a distinguished professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the British Association.